D. Benjamin Franklin, et vita inter Americanos acta, et magnis electricitatis periculis clarus / J. Elias Haid sculp., 1780. – Vintage Wall Art

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
Step back in time with D. Benjamin Franklin, et vita inter Americanos acta, et magnis electricitatis periculis clarus / J. Elias Haid sculp., 1780., a historic print rich in period detail. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.
Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. Perfect for a home, office, library or classroom wall, and a gift with a story behind it. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
D. Benjamin Franklin, et vita inter Americanos acta, et magnis electricitatis periculis clarus / J. Elias Haid sculp., 1780.
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The Latin title on this 1780 mezzotint sets it apart: it describes Benjamin Franklin as a man who lived among Americans and became famous for the great dangers of electricity. Johann Elias Haid, a German engraver working in Augsburg, made the print after a portrait by Charles-Nicolas Cochin. In 1780 Franklin was serving as the American envoy in Paris, and European printmakers eagerly reproduced his likeness, spreading his fame as a scientist and as a public face of the new nation. The reputation the title alludes to rests largely on his 1752 kite experiment, which showed that lightning is a form of electricity.
| Created / published | 1780 |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print : mezzotint. |
| Genre | Portrait prints 1780.Mezzotints 1780. |
| Notes | Title from item. After portrait by Cochin. Published in: The American Revolution in drawings and prints; a checklist of 1765-1790 graphics in the Library of Congress / Compiled by Donald H. Cresswell, with a foreword by Sinclair H. Hitchings. Washington : [For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.], 1975, no. 66. Exhibited: Ben Franklin's Curious Mind, Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2006. |
| Subjects | Franklin, Benjamin,--1706-1790. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 998 × 1,536 px · prints to 3 × 5 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-122358 |
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